Transcript of the above video:

I actually thought of titling this video "I can't believe I am still talking about TM30 after all this time". When this first sort of cropped up on our radar here on this channel, this is actually going back, I think "Big Joke" was actually in charge of Thai Immigration at the time. We did a number of videos though on TM30. It seemed like I want to say the year 2017 going into 2018 was kind of the high watermark for discussion on TM30 insofar as it really became a point of contention. It sort of popped up, again I believe it was under Big Joke that it was sort of rediscovered in terms of a requirement and then it was sort of re-imposed as a requirement and we have had to deal with it ever since. 

Now it has always been on the book, the address reporting function, on the books insofar as it has been part of the Immigration Act of 1979 since 1979 but it sort of fell by the wayside. I can say from personal experience, before I became Thai I didn't really have to deal with it. I kind of actually remember I was finishing up naturalization right around the time this was starting to become an issue and looking back on it, I don't think, I don't know, I expect I probably did at some point fill out the TM30 and my address really never changed in Thailand but I can't seem to remember from personal experience it being that big of a deal. That said, following about 2017 going into 2018, it did become a major concern especially amongst expats in Thailand and aside from issues pertaining to tax or other things like 90-day reporting, I think I can say with some degree f certainty that amongst expats TM30 is something that makes everybody groan when it's time to talk about it. 

That said I thought of making this video mostly as kind of a refresher. We have talked about this before but I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: 90-day Visa exemptions for Brits and others would reduce queues at Thai Immigration Offices. As per usual, I would recommend that those checking out this video, go check out that article in detail, a lot of good information there. That said, quoting directly: "Tourists are required to report their address to Thai Immigration each time they enter the country via the notorious address form TM30." Yeah now as we discussed, in the past the TM6 arrival cards effectively did this and in a sense for tourists especially, where TM30 even becomes relevant in a practical manner, it's as a result of the fact that they got rid of the TM6 arrival card wherein one usually wrote down what address they were going to stay at. Well now TM30 is sort of picking up that slack as we have gone to a digital interface at Immigration checkpoints when you are coming into Thailand and that digital interface caused TM6 to be phased out which then we had this kind of year and a half arguably of bliss, where we didn't really have to worry about this kind of hypersensitive or hyper accountable if you will address reporting but now yeah effectively, if you need anything done here in Thailand with regard to Immigration you have got to go ahead and deal with TM30 as we have discussed in other videos. That said, quoting further: "If they fail to do this promptly and require any service at Immigration - such as extending their visa or requesting a certificate of residency, to buy or sell a car or open a bank account -  they will be fined even though the technical responsibility rests with the hotel or condominium residence "housemaster". Some establishments report all their guests online to Immigration, but many do not or even fail to inform their guests." Yeah okay. The analysis I did want to get into there was this: "They will be fined even though the technical responsibility rests with the hotel or condominium residence "housemaster". Going back a while, and I will try to dig out the links and put them in the description below, we did a pretty thorough analysis on this and at the end of the day the term “housemaster” is very, very nebulous; that was the conclusion we drew when we did the analysis on this. It was years ago actually. No, it is not necessarily the "technical" responsibility of the owner of a given residence because at the moment you begin to rent it, there is an argument that you are the “housemaster” of that premises at that point. As we've discussed in other videos, Thai leasehold rules stipulate that if okay, yes if you have a long-term lease of more than three years it needs to be in writing in order for it to be enforceable but if it's less than 3 years, it doesn't necessarily need to be in writing in order for it to be enforceable, or I should say, it doesn't necessarily need to be registered in order for it to be enforceable. Either way, yeah if you take up residence in a guest house or somebody else's condo, so-called Airbnb, the sort of room sharing apps whatever, if you have an agreement with that landlord, I think that makes you the house master at that point. Again this isn't real cut and dried; it's very, very nebulous this term "housemaster". But long story short, as we have discussed previously, I think there is a strong argument to be made that the moment you begin taking up residence if you will, the moment again residence in sort of the vernacular in sort of the colloquial meaning of the term, not sort of lawful permanent residence, or tax residence or something like this, but basically you begin living in a place and you're renting it from the landlord, well at that moment you're the master for the term of the duration of that lease, whatever that rental agreement may stimulate.

So again, there is a great deal of opacity associated with who actually has to file a TM30 especially with regard to sort of a one-to-one rental agreement between two parties. I'm renting somebody's condo for a month or something like this or someone's villa for a month. Is that person a house master during that month? I think there's an argument to be made that they're not. More importantly though as a practical matter it has no impact on for example a Thai landlord A Thai landlord that owns for example a condo or a villa that is renting it to somebody, if they don't feel fill out TM 30 it really doesn't affect them in any practical manner. Now you could argue maybe they have to pay a fine but again then you get into the definition of “housemaster” which okay is that the landlord? Well if they have rented it to somebody else, then in every way that counts, during the duration of that lease, of that rental period, that person is the master of those premises. So you can argue, I don't even think it's arguable, I think it's pretty sound to presume, okay you're the housemaster for that duration. Again it's not cut and dried; it's not fully clear. I am not trying to make this to make pedantic points or semantic points about who's who in all this and trying to narrowly define what a “housemaster” is as opposed to a landlord, not the purpose of the video. What you need to understand as just somebody travelling to Thailand who is looking to stay here and you are looking to figure out responsibility with regard to TM30, as a practical matter it really is you as the foreigner's responsibility because again the nebulous nature of this “housemaster” issue coupled with the fact that as a practical matter it is you that has to deal with the ramifications of failing to file a TM30. The underlying landlord if you will, is not necessarily going to see any ramifications from failing to file TM30.